Watch Paul Stanley’s Soul Station Make Their Live Debut

Fans will recall Paul Stanley mentioning a passion for Motown and Philly soul in his autobiography Face the Music. That was no idle boast: Turns out, the stalwart co-founder of Kiss has created a hulking 10-member group called Soul Station to explore some of his favorite R&B covers on stage.

Here's your chance to sample Soul Station, who played a debut set of covers from Motown, Stax/Volt and Philadelphia International on Friday (Sept. 11) at the Roxy. Watch them doing the Temptations' "Just My Imagination" in the above video, and "I Want You Back" – the old favorite from the Jackson 5 – in the video below.

Stanley's reason for starting this new side gig was quite simple, he says.

"I just find myself thinking that people go to live shows paying for Kobe beef and getting dog food," Stanley told LA Weekly. "You get computerized music with fake vocals, and it had me thinking about all of the great Motown and Philly soul acts that did these great songs and delivered the goods. I thought it was a great thing to celebrate, so I called some of the top people who I knew and when I told them what I wanted to do, [and] everybody without hesitation said they were in."

Stanley has said that he doesn't intend to play guitar in this band, and that Soul Station won't do any Kiss songs, either. "That's not what this is about," he added. Among those in the crowd on Friday were comedian George Lopez and Stanley's long-time partner in Kiss, Gene Simmons.